“Discretionary spending will be hit which could include cosmetic products, clothing and footwear, recreation and entertainment, and most likely fast foods and dining will become a real luxury,” said Elize.

She added that couriers would also feel the pinch and will probably increase delivery costs as well.

“[It’s] important to look at the fuel price cumulatively over the past seven months… with the cumulative increase about R3.30/litre higher in seven months, the drain on households disposable income would be clearer understood,” she said.

Elize spoke about a possible secondary impact that may further impact the prices of locally produced items among others.

“Now, question remains… What company can completely absorb such an increase in input costs? Thus, here lies a particularly large risk for a secondary impact on prices i.e. not only the higher fuel prices in the CPI basket (direct impact), but a generalised increase in prices due to the higher fuel prices (secondary impact),” she said.

With this and the forecast from the World Bank, the economic environment is becoming harder and harder for our pockets.

Fin24 reported that the World Bank reduced its estimate for the South African GDP expansion to 1% this year from 1.4%. This was in addition to the overall decrease for the sub-Saharan Africa region, which the World Bank reduced its forecast for economic growth because of the external environment that becomes less favourable due to escalating global trade risks and weakening demand for the area’s products.